Aldric Chang

I have always believed in passive income from day one. I do not believe in living from day to day and being dependent on a fixed salary for a livelihood.

This is the reason why in all my business endeavors, I look for businesses that provide a passive income - an income that would continue being generated even when I am not working.

Coincidentally such businesses are usually creatively driven.

Take music for example. As a songwriter I receive royalties for the songs I write and sell continuously.

As a cartoon producer, the cartoons we produce generate royalties through the broadcasting of our shows and the licensing of our character brands.

As an internet marketer, I get paid for my recommendations and for publishing info products.

As a writer, I get paid royalties for getting my works published.

All these are forms of passive income - income that can be generated even when you sleep!

Many people have accumulated tremendous wealth through using their time wisely to produce passive income products like songs, books, info products etc.

Now you probably see why I love passive income!

A book by Robert Allen titled "Multiple Streams of Income" is a good introductory book to passive income should you ever be interested in this subject.

I really started working when I joined the Army.

National Service in Singapore is mandatory. Most of us here in Singapore serve between 2 to 2.5 years in either the Army, the Navy, the Police Force or the Civil Defence Unit.

I served in the Army for my national service and started getting paid for my first real job.

To supplement my income as well I wrote articles and got paid when they were published. To be honest, my very first choice of career would have been to be a writer if not for the fact that it was simply not possible to make a decent living out of writing in Singapore at that point. Local publishers could only reach out to a small audience and it just wasn't lucrative enough for them to make writing lucrative for us.

Anyway, right out of Army, I decided to try my hand at songwriting. Strangely though, I never did play a single instrument in my entire life, but I could think up melodies in my head.

Believe it or not, my first song won me a top prize at a local songwriting competition!

After that I went on to write more songs which eventually got sold to record labels. I also got to produce songs for albums!

It was an amazing experience in my life and I would still have been working in the music industry had it not been for the fact that it was a difficult time in the local music industry then (still is!).

In my opinion good music is music that can be felt and not just heard.

It is almost like a life substance which you need to feel and hold in your hands. If you can do that, you can communicate with music and communicate through music.

Music can move people and change lives - for the positive or for the negative.

Classical music has been known to have a positive impact on child development and relieving stress.

Heavy metal has been known to be the best music accompaniment for drug parties and self decadence.

I am not talented to do either kind of music so I simply write mainstream music that can hopefully communicate across all races. If you are not Chinese and you like my music, then I would have succeeded.

Please drop me a feedback about my music :)

After a 3-4 year stint in the music industry, I decided to look for business alternatives.

My search rested on animation. I've always been big on the concept of passive income. I like the idea of earning income even when I'm asleep or retired. This is why prior to setting up Mediafreaks I was writing and producing music. After a few years in the music business, I realized that the industry was declining and decided to explore business alternatives. Still big on the idea of passive income, I researched other possibilities of earning passive income and learnt that character licensing is one of them. Through creating cartoons that become popular, I would be able to license the cartoon characters associated with the shows and collect royalties for it.

After making this decision, I went to China to study animation for several months. There, I was able to forge a firm friendship with one of the lecturers in my animation school and he's now a good friend and a close working partner. We also co-created and developed the preschooler animated series Katakune.

I started Mediafreaks in 2003 right after my return from China.

Mediafreaks started off as a 2 dollar and 2 man company. The first year was spent servicing projects through Elance. All of our clients were from around the world and we did all manners of work ranging from animation to graphics design to web design to multimedia work.

In 2004, we set up shop in a small room rented out from an advertising company and received our first local project in the form of a medical animation CD-Rom for a nutritional company. The value of that project was $30,000. The rest of the year was spent servicing clients from Singapore and Elance. By the end of the year we had built up a pretty decent portfolio and we were able to move out of our small room to a proper office at Club Street.

It was at this point that the partner who had been with me from the start resisted the idea of incorporating Mediafreaks as a private limited and structuring it like a proper company. To me, it was evident that we could never grow as a company if we continued as a 2-man team. I wanted to grow a business, not be a couple of glorified freelancers forever. My partner finally relented but two months after we hired two new guys to help us grow the business, my first partner decided that he could not take the pay cut and decided to bail out. It was a difficult and awkward period because the two new guys are fresh out from school and lacked experience. I had to juggle between training them up, managing projects and producing animation. But miraculously things pulled through and I am proud to say that two of these guys are now partners of Mediafreaks and both are strong pillars of the company. Aric Lim is managing most of the outsourced projects for our service division and Galen Toh is the man in-charge of our operations in China.

In 2005, one of the challenges Mediafreaks faced was struggling to have a clear brand identity. We were doing all manners of projects and it was clear that we needed to be known for specializing in something in order to gain brand recognition. It was then we stumbled upon the very niche service of creating animation for documentaries. Quite by chance, we were approached by Bang Singapore to produce the animation for a Discovery documentary titled "Secrets of the Battleship Yamato". Apparently we did such a good job that soon we had documentary producers approaching us to produce animation for their documentaries! Up until today, we have produced the animation for about 30 documentaries, amongst which several are extremely popular and even won a few awards. To name a few, we produced the animation for the Man Made Marvel series, Mega Structures series, the award-winning Super Cell, Secrets of the Battleship Yamato and the Voyages of Zhenghe.

During this year, Adrian Chye - a fresh graduate from the Singapore National Technological University joined us and he soon became an strong pillar of the company. Currently the General Manager of Mediafreaks, Adrian oversess most business development projects with me.

In 2006, Mediafreaks was ready to move on and embark on creating our own intellectual properties. The first property we worked on was a preschooler animated series called Katakune. We invested some of our own money to create the pilot episodes and character bible, and were lucky enough to get the support of MDA and other private investors to fund the full production of Katakune later on.

It was also during the year of 2006 that we marketed our services aggressively to the local market, and we started getting projects to do animated TV commercials. We also became the first and only animation studio to offer medical animation services in Singapore. It might be worthwhile mentioning that the medical animation we did for a documentary called Super Cell won several awards.

2007 was a very busy year as we were working on producing Katakune and working back-to-back on several projects at any one time.

Earlier this year in 2008, we wrapped up production of Katakune and embarked on our second animated series - Sedo Dog. Katakune was ready to go to market with 520 minutes worth of high quality HD animated content. To date, Katakune has won a couple of animation awards and broadcasted in several countries.

I am the Executive Producer for Katakune and Sedo Dog, both of which I am co-creators for.

To be honest, I have never dreamt of creating cartoons. I have always thought I would be an architect, a writer or something else. Producing cartoons was the furthest thing from my mind.

But here I am - the proud Executive Producer and Creator of 2 cartoon series - one of which of won several awards and is broadcasting in several countries and the other fast getting traction in the marketplace despite being still in production!

How I achieved this is still a mystery, but I have documented a part of this amazing journey within Katakune's Official Blog.

I hope that this also serves to tell those in doubt of themselves to always have faith and persist in what you believe in!

If it's for kids it should be fun, educational and morally responsible.

If it's for adults it should be funny, wacky, witty and silly all at the same time.

Unfortunately kids are growing older younger (KGOY) these days and I think a large part is due to the fact that many cartoons for kids are incorporating elements that should belong to the adult category cartoons into their shows.

No doubt they are more interesting but do you really want your kids to think like a tween when they are really just 8?

I urge all parents to sit down and watch at least an episode to decide if it is suitable for their kids' consumption before they allow their kids to watch the rest of the show.

Kids have but one childhood. Don't waste it.

What is Your Childhood Dream?
My childhood dream was to be an author, to be able to write thrilling stories to wow the readers. Having said that, I've never planned on working on my own. It just happened naturally.

Why Do You Never Want to Work for Anyone Else?
You are the captain of your own ship and you get a shot at breaking the salary ceiling a regular job would confine you to.

What Motivates You?
The prospects of early retirement and being able to do what I want without the need to worry about money.

What Do You Have to Overcome to Succeed?
Reminding myself that the moment I think I am successful means that I have actually become complacent and stopped improving! Hence, overcoming this mentality that is very crucial.

What Do You Think Makes You Different?
I dare to think different and think big, and am willing to work very hard to support those thoughts. More importantly, I don't listen blindly to 'advice' - I never give up trying something just because someone else has tried it before and failed. Conversely, I think that precisely because someone else had tried it before means that I can learn from his mistake and use that experience to my advantage.

What Do You Think Are Essential Tools for a Successful Businessman?
Good writing, speaking and analytical skills bring you good business leads and give your clients a good impression. Good leadership and management garner respect and attract the best people to help you. Good EQ and a genuine concern for your staff's welfare are also essential ingredients to succeed in business. To sum up, you need to have a diversified and yet united team so that there is team synergy.

Who Inspires You?
Patch Adams, the doctor who started the free hospital, and Oscar Schindler, the businessman who saved over a thousand Jews during Hitler's reign. To me, a business built like a castle with good generals and soldiers is the first step to building a business enterprise. And in order to do that, you've got to think for them and earn their trust and hearts.

What is Entrepreneurship to You?
Entrepreneurship is the willingness and opportunity to take on responsibilities not only for yourself, but for those working with and for you. Entrepreneurship is also a key to financial independence if you do things right.

Do You Think Education is Important to an Entrepreneur?
Education helps in very practical aspects such as accounts management, business planning and marketing. But there are raw instincts such as creativity, acumen and foresight that cannot be taught. I think that it is crucial for both elements to co-exist and as long as one keeps that in mind, a good education can be a formidable weapon, just like raw instincts can be too.

What Principles Do You Uphold in Business?
Treat people with sincerity. Never badmouth your competitors. Never oversell your capabilities. Care for your staff like how you would care for your family.

What Words Do You Have for Budding Entrepreneurs?
Be prudent but be bold. Be humble but be firm. Do dream but be realistic. Learn to fall and learn to climb.

1. To be the CEO of a listed company
2. To own a theme park
3. To create a fund for homeless children and the elderly
4. To write and produce a great movie
5. To write a great book
6. To write and produce a great animated feature
7. To create a successful virtual world for kids
8. To create a successful social networking site for adults
9. To establish a chain of character branded retail stores around the world
10. To retire in style and wealth

I joined Squidoo less than a year ago. I am not particularly fast at churning out lenses as I believe in creating particularly informative and good ones. I do enjoy very much the process and the satisfaction of putting up good lenses and have been rewarded with good feedback so far.

I've got lenses that has made top 100 overall, top 10 in their categories and also one Lens of the Day.

This is really encouraging and testimony of the good company we keep here in Squidoo. I am working my way towards becoming a Giant Squid and hopefully a Squid Angel in the future :)

This was very very first lens. In its hey days within about 2 weeks of my joining Squidoo, this lens got promoted to the top 10 in the Business category :)

How 2D and 3D Animation Services Can Help Sell Your Products and Services Like Crazy

Over the past decade, some companies have learnt how to harness the power of animation to add tremendous value to their presentations and marketing campaigns, resulting in high volumes of sales for their products and services. But there are still many companies who are not savvy in this aspect. This lens hopes to expand the horizons of those in the marketing field and share with them how animation can help sell their products and services like crazy!

I was barely into my 2nd or 3rd month in Squidoo and the good folks here made this Lens of the Day! I am grateful for the great support the good folks of the Squidoo community gives to those in put in effort for their lenses.

Tips on Creating, Monetizing and Popularizing Digital Characters

Good character designs can help to make a game or cartoon series look that much more interesting and propel sales. But great character designs can actually help to create huge franchises, build up companies and even shape the landscape of the industries. This lens first takes a look at some of the world's most famous characters and how they had had created a legacy for themselves and their companies. We will discuss briefly their traits and what makes them tick.

Movies I Like - Patch Adams, Hotel Rwanda, The Kite Runner, I am Sam, Schindler's List, Felon

Authors I Like - Roald Dahl, Dan Brown, Richard Laymon, John Saul, Khaled Hosseini

Video Games I Like - Tekken, Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, Bandit Kings of Ancient China

Music I Like - Air Supply, Itzhak Perlman, Yanni, Josh Groban, Yukie Nishimura, Joe, Boyz to Men